Gender equality, norms and practices: Post-script to special issue on new actors, old donors and gender equality norms in international development cooperation

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Barnett
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
General Movement ◽  
And Gender ◽  
International Development Cooperation

The contributions raise several important issues regarding the norm of gender equality in development organizations, and I want to raise the following points for further consideration. Does it matter if we treat gender equality as a norm or practice? The articles suggest that there is general movement toward the norm, but what it means to do gender equality is quite fractured. Who decides what gender equality means? Why do organizations feel the need to adopt this norm? Organizations have different motives, and these motives are probably important for understanding whether these norms have any impact. Impact refers to effects, and there are various kinds of effects raised by the articles, though focused mainly on the norm’s institutionalization rather than its impact.

scholarly journals Global norms and heterogeneous development organizations

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde ◽  
Lars Engberg-Pedersen ◽  
Adam Moe Fejerskov
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Organizational History ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Global Norms ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Do So

Contemporary development cooperation is characterized by an increasing tension between a growing diversity of actors and significant attempts at homogenizing development practices through global norms prescribing ‘good development’. This special issue shows empirically how diverse development organizations engage with global norms on gender equality. To understand this diversity of norm-engagement conceptually, this introductory article proposes four explanatory dimensions: (i) organizational history, culture and structures; (ii) actor strategies, emotions and relationships; (iii) organizational pressures and priorities; and (iv) the normativeenvironment and stakeholders. We argue that, while development organizations cannot avoid addressing global norms regarding gender equality, they do so in considerably divergent ways. However, the differences are explained less by whether these organizations constitute ‘new’ or ‘old’ donors than by the four identified dimensions.

Contested norms in fragmented institutions: Gender equality in South Africa’s development cooperation

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
International Development ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Organizational Restructuring ◽  
International Development Cooperation

Engaging with gender equality norms is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for being considered a legitimate partner in international development cooperation. South Africa has often been acknowledged as having one of the world’s most progressive constitutions for promoting gender equality. However, gender equality norms are heavily contested in the national political context. Situated in the gap between policy and implementation, this article explores how South Africa engages with gender equality norms as a leading actor in South–South Cooperation. It argues that contestations in competing normative environments and organizational restructuring processes are impeding the push for a policy guiding gender equality work in South Africa’s development cooperation.

scholarly journals Integration Conundrums: Framing and Responding to Climate Security Challenges in Development Cooperation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2582
Author(s):  
Veronica Brodén Gyberg ◽  
Malin Mobjörk
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Do No Harm ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
International Development Cooperation ◽  
Levels Of Integration

This paper contributes to the burgeoning research on the integration of climate-related security risks by organizations. Development organizations have an important preventive mandate and can mitigate climate security challenges in low- and lower-middle-income economies, but they have a complex task, contending with power asymmetries and a very wide set of policy-making processes occurring in tandem. We explore how climate security challenges are being addressed in development organizations through focusing on the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), which has worked with integration of cross-sectoral issues since the 1980s. We narrow in specifically on how the overlaps between two separate policy areas at Sida—climate and conflict—have been framed and responded to in recent years. The study finds that the integration of these two areas is prioritized on a general policy level but that there are obstacles when translating policy into practice. Challenges include conceptual diversity, tensions between expert and general knowledge and differing organizational preconditions. Despite this, integration does occur between the two policy areas on several levels, ranging from a macro-level general awareness of potential overlaps with a “do no harm” ambition, to micro levels of integration in which strategies and interventions are adjusted.

scholarly journals Innovation system formation in international development cooperation: The role of intermediaries in urban sanitation

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara J van Welie ◽  
Wouter P C Boon ◽  
Bernhard Truffer
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Innovation System ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Global Innovation ◽  
Service Sectors ◽  
Intermediary Role ◽  
International Development Cooperation

Abstract The transformation of urban basic service sectors towards more sustainability is one of the ‘grand challenges’ for public policy, globally. A particular urgent problem is the provision of sanitation in cities in low-income countries. The globally dominant centralised sewerage approach has proven incapable to reach many of the urban poor. Recently, an increasing number of actors in international development cooperation has started to develop alternative safely managed non-grid approaches. We approach their efforts as an emerging ‘global innovation system’ and investigate how its development can be supported by systemic intermediaries. We analyse the activities of the ‘Sustainable Sanitation Alliance’, an international network that coordinates activities in the sanitation sector and thereby supports this innovation system. The findings show how demand ing it is to fulfil an intermediary role in a global innovation system, because of the need to consider system processes at different scales, in each phase of system building.

scholarly journals Japan’s development cooperation: from making amends to agenda–setting

2021 ◽  
pp. 351-373
Author(s):  
Nikolay Murashkin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Development ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
World War ◽  
Japan International Cooperation Agency ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
International Development Cooperation

This article revisits the post–World War II evolution of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) over the past 75 years, with a particular focus on the period starting from the 1980s and subsequent changes in Japan’s international development cooperation policies. I address cornerstones such as human security and quality growth, while examining the role of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), shifts and continuities in regional visions and sectoral priorities, such as infrastructure development. I argue that the threefold mix of key drivers behind Japan’s development cooperation has remained consistent, involving developmentalism stemming from Japan’s own experience of successful modernisation from a non–Western background, neo–mercantilism, as well as strategic and geopolitical considerations. The relative weight and interplay of these factors, however, fluctuated in different periods.

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